YONKERS, N.Y. – St. John’s Riverside Hospital is seeking state aid to expand its “severely overcrowded” emergency room in Yonkers.

Hospital officials announced Wednesday that they will file an application with the New York State Department of Health for $10 million to restructure and expand the emergency department at St. John’s Andrus Pavilion, 967 N. Broadway.

Hospital President and CEO Ronald Corti said the project, estimated to cost a total of $15 million, is needed because the hospital has seen an increase in patients seeking emergency care.

The emergency department is designed to accommodate 25,000 patients but sees about 38,600 each year, Corti said. And projected growth rates are that the hospital may soon see as many as 50,000 visitors annually.

“Throughout its history, St. John’s has been guided by its mission of service to its community, and the restructuring and redesign of our severely overcrowded emergency department will help us continue this mission by helping to optimize patient processing and improve our efficiency,” Thomas Lee, chairman of the Board of Trustees of St. John’s, said in a statement.

The hospital says its goal is to increase its emergency department from 19 treatment areas to 29. A larger emergency department design would also feature observation bays, a geriatric area and an urgent care center as well as separate patient and ambulance entrances, officials said.

Several city and state politicians have pledged their support for the upgrades.

St. John’s Riverside Hospital is the city’s largest private employer, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano said, and a project of this magnitude will bring construction and other new health-related jobs to the city.

“Clearly, Yonkers needs this expansion and modernization of emergency room capacity,” Spano said in a statement. “The St. John’s health network plays a vital role in the health of Yonkers residents as well as the economic well-being of the City of Yonkers.”

State Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) said the project is of vital importance not only to Yonkers but to southern Westchester.

"We now need to support this expanded facility so St. John's can continue to meet the demands of our growing population and the healthcare challenges that we are currently facing," she said in a statement.